Dead friends

Imagine having your own slobbering army of oozing undead creatures. Imagine the damage you could cause, the functions you could disrupt, the amount of meetings you could get out of.

But now imagine the training that you'd have to do. Imagine the hours of your own time you'd have to put in to making sure that your bidding was done to a satisfactory level when your orders were sent out.

It's those time-consuming drills that Deadlings gives you a chance to play through. And surprisingly enough, they're pretty darn enjoyable.

You control everything with a single finger. Some Deadlings jump when you tap on the screen, others float higher when you hold a finger down. Some go to sleep until you push on the screen again, and some can scuttle along on any surface.

At the start of each level, you're given a number of creatures. You're aiming to get at least one of your Deadlings to a portal door, preferably within a time limit and after you've snaffled all of the human brains scattered around the various nooks and crannies of the testing chamber.

IAPs explained

There are a variety of different things you can pay some cash to get more of in Deadlings.

You can spend Skulls on a variety of in-game items. Skulls are available in bundles ranging from 25 for 69p / 99c to 500 for £2.99 / $4.99.

You can buy packs of new Deadlings, too - these cost between 69p / 99c (for 20) and £2.99 / $4.99 (for 200).

You can also buy bundles, which are the best value. These range from £2.99 / $4.99 to £13.99 / $19.99.

To start off with, you're basically playing a simple platformer. As you work through the levels, though, you'll have to use the various different properties of the monsters at your disposal to pull switches and collect all of the brains.

Fathoming out what to do with the resources you're given is part of the fun of the game, and there are some buffs and boosts that help you along the way.

You can resurrect fallen Deadlings, cut out problematic obstacles, and add extra zombies.

Zooming out on the map reveals all the places your friends will die

The levels get more expansive, too, requiring you to plan using the schematic of the play space. You'll be using multiple creatures to hold down switches, then, and sending others diving through portals to warp back to the start to be used again.

It all blends together to make a slick, interesting puzzle-platformer that takes chunks of inspiration from a handful of sources and mashes them together to create a game that's well worth sinking some of your time into.